Friedrich Rosen

Friedrich Rosen or Fritz Rosen (Leipzig, August 30, 1856 – November 27, 1935, Beijing) was a German Orientalist, diplomat and politician. From May to October 1921 he was the Foreign Minister of Germany.

Friedrich Rosen's grandfather, Friedrich Ballhorn-Rosen, was Chancellor of the Principality of Lippe; his father, Georg Rosen, an orientalist, published writings on Islam. However, Georg Rosen decided to enter the diplomatic service of Prussia. He was active as a consul in the Middle East and the Balkans. Friedrich's mother came from a British scholarly family of Jewish faith (who had converted to Christianity).

In this cosmopolitan atmosphere, Friedrich Rosen was born in 1856 in Leipzig. However, he grew up in Jerusalem, where his father was consul. Friedrich Rosen enjoyed an education in four languages (German, English, Arabic and Turkish). He early decided to study modern and oriental languages, which brought him to Berlin, Leipzig, Göttingen, and Paris. After graduating, he worked for several months in London as a tutor for the children of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, the viceroy of India.

He retained a basically anglophilic attitude and a passion for oriental culture all his life. From 1887 onwards, he taught Persian and Urdu at the Department of Oriental Languages of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin.

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